Divorce Records now online

This new set of records from Ancestry.co.uk will, for some, definitely comes under the heading of belonging to the skeleton in the cupboard !!! However most genealogists soon discover that you need to embrace the records that don’t reflect well on our ancestors as well as those which do.

The Civil Divorce Records 1858 – 1911 can provide lots of information for family histories, claim and counter claim about the reason why a divorce is being sort plus date of marriage, children born and where the couple lived.

A test search for the name Elliott brought forth 108 results. I chose Archibald McVine Elliott as my example. the document gave the following information.

February 1882 at 273 Cable Street, Shadwell Archibald lived and co-habited with Elsie or Elise Morgan. Another 5 address where Archibald & Elsie lived are given. Also Archibald & Elsie went under the name of Mr & Mrs Hamilton.

Death of Elsie Morgan

22 January 1888

After Elsie’s death Archibald went to live with his sister Mrs Grace Dowie Harding of 460 Harrow Road, London

Archibald’s relation

Stepmother, 4 brothers (2 in Bethlehem Hospital, one secretary of the Badminton Club, Piccadilly, one a doctor at the Colonial Hospital, Geraldton, Western Australia, one sister.

Marriage certificate

Copy of marriage certificate included in file

Death certificate

Copy of death certificate of John Archibald Hamilton who died aged 4 months at 273 Cable Street. John must have been a son of Archibald & Elsie.

There are 19 pages in all, some are double pages. As can be seen there is an enormous amount of information to be found in these records. A valuable addition to the Ancestry set of databases.

About Me

History, particularly Family History is my passion. I have worked in libraries & archives, I teach family history, conduct workshops and give genealogy presentations. It seemed a shame to have all this knowledge & experience and not share it with others, so this website was born.